Of these, the states that met the application deadline this week were Washington, Washington DC, Ohio, and Illinois.

What’s cool about this list is that four of the states are working together to create a Bicycle Route that goes from Washington DC, up the C & O Canal Towpath to the Great Allegheny Passage, then west across the rest of Pennsylvania, across the West Virginia panhandle and then all the way across Ohio and Indiana. (Maryland already got approval for its section of USBR 50 last fall.)

The whole point of the US Bicycle Route system is to create good bicycling routes that people can follow as they travel from city to city across the country.

US Bicycle Route System corridors (approved routes in black)

So far, 5,900 miles of US Bicycle Routes have been designated in 12 states — Alaska, Kentucky, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Forty states are working on the routes, which follow corridors the run north-south and east-west.

The submission by Washington state covers the current route of the Northern Tier Bicycle Route, which includes passage through the North Cascades National Park on Highway 20. The state prepared the documents with the help of John Pope of Anacortes, Barb Culp of Seattle and Lynn O’Conner of Colville.

A tradition for tandem cyclists dating back to 1988, the rally has been dubbed the “Love Ride” due to the couples on tandems and proximity to Valentine’s Day. Three options of 40, 60, or 100 miles around the famous Sutter Buttes ~ a series of mountain peaks made up of ancient volcanic domes. Starting from …

Stinky Spoke is a 16-mile ride over a mountain bike course in hills east of Sammamish River Trail. New tour operators in 2019 — Rotary Club of Redmond. Check website for tour details as previous years’ host site – Redhook Brewery — has closed. Ride starts at Redmond Town Hall complex, then proceeds to Sammamish …